The useless scale

Today's post will be dedicated to one of my best friends-Marta and another friend Kiril, but in reality it refers to a whole more people. What I wanna talk about is THE SCALE! And hold on! I bet that when you hear that word, the adrenaline starts rushing through your veins, you feel the butterflies in your stomach and the fear of that useless object starts overtaking you!

You are more than a number...YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

What made me write is a story that has to do something with both of my friends. Marta is a great looking young lady that is according to me way too thin. The other day she was on a walk when she saw a scale and decided to step on it. And guess what! Big panic! The scale showed that she was a little heavier than the last time she stepped on it! So now she thinks she is fat and she should loose weight! Deadly wrong. I won't post a picture of her, because I do not think it is appropriate, but I assure you that she looks more like she needs to pack on some weight instead of loose more!

Next let's talk about Kiril. He is tall about 6feet 2inches. He weighs about 130lbs and he conciders himself fat??? What in the world is fogging his mind??? He needs to open the fridge, grab all the food inside and eat it, so he can make sure he won't blot out himself from the face of Earth! He thinks the scale shows way too much and he should loose weight!

It is so sad to see that so many women and obviously even men measure their attractiveness through what the numbers on the scale show! Because I feel perplexed how to explain what a useless thing those numbers are, I asked my friend wikipedia and what it says is: "weight is the name given to the force on an object due to gravity." So you are trying to convince me that measuring how gravity affects your body could be comparable to the way you see yourself, to how attractive you will feel and how sexy others think you are? Hm...doesn't sound with much authenticity to me!

Let's look at it that way. The gravity on Jupiter is about ten times stronger than the gravity on Earth. That means that if you go there you will weigh a lot more than you will weigh now. Does that make you look fatter? Feel less sexy? Makes you less attractive?? NO! Just because gravity affects you in different way on Jupiter, that doesn't make you look worse! Then let's move on to the Moon! There gravity is 5/6 less than it is on Earth. So iuhuuuuu you will be a lot lighter! does that rise your self-esteem? Does it make you feel better? Well, it shouldn't! You will look just the same way as you look now. So did you see, how you could weigh yourself, and the scale could show three different weights and you'd still look the same?

Always remember-YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

I hope that is enough to convince you that the numbers on the scale, are not relevant to your attractiveness. Nobody cares how much you weigh. People perceive objects by the way they look. When you meet somebody, they won't carry a scale with them. They won't ask you to step on the scale, see the numbers and according to them decide if you are worth being their friend or not!

I read an article that gave me some things to think about. It was said how in Playboy you get all the measuremeants of the models beside their weight! And why do you think it is that way? Because nobody cares. These girls are hot no matter how much they weigh because proportions are more important for the way others perceive you! That is why if you want to keep track on your body composition, it is way better to grab a meter and take your measures, instead of ruining your mind with the useless numbers on the stupid scale!

Think about people with chicken legs and big bellies. And now imagine a fit, strong person. Both of them might way the same, but do they look the same? NO! I wouldn't care how much they weigh! I'd just admire the second one and encourage the first one to get his nutrition right and start lifting some weights!

Don't use it!

The numbers on the scale do not matter! It is just a trick of the marketing world. It is just a way of the industry to get in your head and make you feel bad, so you will use all their pills, foods, creams and other bullcraps to crave yourself. But it won't happen. Just take that wrong invention of humans-the scale...put it in a box, somewhere in the closet and forget about its existance. Live your life and enjoy it! And make sure that you never compare your attractiveness to some useless numbers!

Why fats are better than carbs

I am really keen on nutrition, and I spend a lot of time reading about it from different resources. Eventhough I know a lot about it, I can easily get confused by all the inconsistency and differences in theories out there. Some preach eat high-carb diets, others preach high-protein...high-fat, low-fat and so on. If you do not believe me that it is that hard to find out which one is good for you, just by reading...try it yourself. Pick up a diet and start reading about it. You will find tons of information and reasearches backing it up and as much inoformation that claims it to be unhealthy.

I am pretty much convinced that just by reading and trusting some health guru, you couldn't pick the right nutritional plan. I know it from experience, and I'd reccomend you try and find out which one works best for you. But from my experience( and I've tried all the high-something and low-something diets), the best one is the high fat diet, with your fats coming from meat,nuts, coconut oil, olives, fish, egss, avocado and so on; your carbs coming from some fruit and lot's of different vegetables and the protein...just eat your meat and eggs :).

Because I do not want it to sound bareness I will back up my theory. I am not the best at explaining something with biologycal terms, though I understand it for myself...so I will make it easier. I found an article that sums up everything and provides it in a simple way so it could be understood by everybody. Here it is.

I will just add up something to all that, by saying to everybody that thinks carbs are vital for our survival...Let's go back to our ancestors and think about how they lived. Because our evolution is due to their way of living. They had to go long periods without food, followed by some feasts. DUring the time of starvation our body needed a way to provide the essntial body parts with the needed nutrition. So it developed mechanisms to cope with the different circumstances. The liver, the main back-up glycogen;glucose storage can only store about 100 grams of glycogen. Less than a day’s worth. Your muscles can only hold another 350-500 grams and that glycogen isn’t even available to provide fuel for the brain. Meanwhile, we have a virtually unlimited storage capacity for fat-about 100,000 grams or close to a million calories . The reason glycogen storage wasn’t necessary is because, between our copious fat storage capability, easy access to fats as fuel, gluconeogenesis and ketones, we just didn’t need much. Evolution tends not to reward structures or functions that take up unnecessary space or waste energy.

Also let's make it simple and think why do we tend to get ona diet? Because we store the excess calories we eat as fat. Why do we store them as fat? Because that is what the body keeps,so in case you made it endure long periods without food, it will make sure that it will have enough fuel to provide in order to survive.

Diet without deadline

The other day I was at the grocery store. I was waiting in line, when a lady behind me asked me if I was an athlete. I smiled back and affirmed I was. The lady was about 40years old and a little overweight. While we were waiting she felt like chatting with me and told me how much she wanted to be in shape. She threw a compliment and told me I had a stunning body. She was holding a fruit yogurt and some "DIET" dessert. I myself had a couple cartons with eggs, some pork stakes and tons of veggetables. 

She was staring at my groceries, and said that she wished she could eat as much as me and still look good, but everything that she ate looked to go on her butt and her belly...so she was cursed to be on a diet. The lady told me about how a "specialist" explained her how she was supposed to eat, she knew everything but it was still hard to follow the diet. She went further saying,  "Thanks God I have two more weeks till the end of the diet and then I will be able to eat everything!". 

First of all...no wonder it was hard following the diet. I would find it hard too, if I stuffed myself with yogurt with added sugar, and diet desserts that make my body suffer just by the thought of eating them! Next...I totally "LOVE" diets with deadline. Those are my favorite! I've done that too and it seemed like I never got to finish my diet and sclupt my body before the deadline came...so it was something like a deadline after deadline, always failing to get the results I STARVED so hard for.

I am not right sure what is supposed to happen or actually how it is supposed to happen, but people should understand first that diets have no deadlines. Diets are actually a lifestyle, and the word itself is not a bad word and not something to be ashamed of. Diet just means an eating plan. So first step towards achieving your goals is to get to know more about the food you fuel your body with!Make sure you find an eating plan that will fit you and your needs. And take caution that this diet is not supposed to be the one that works for your neighbour, your friend or some celebrity! It is the one that works for you and just you!

Make sure you will eat some REAL food! And by real I do not mean the one that circulates through the latest commercials;the one that is being advertised by skinny girls, praising the food that made their life better...none of that is real food. Actually what you are supposed to eat are all these foods that never get aired in the commercials-start from the nice, delicious red meat, the tasty, colorful vegetables;juicy real fruits; eggs; fish;raw nuts and so on. Just make sure that your eating plan includes all the listed above foods and I assure you that you won't find it hard to follow. You won't find yourself feeling deprived and miserable with your life.

After starting to eat the real food, start eating as much as you need. Not as much as somebody says you wree supposed to. Throw away all the calculators, and stop estimating these calories. Your body knows better what you need. You know better how you feel. The calculator just estimates some numbers. Do you think that your body is so simple?Do you think it functions this way? Just a quick equation of calories in vs calories out? I bet that scientists wished it was so simple! There is so much more to it. There are so many things that influence the way you feel, the way you look and the speed of your metabolism. It is a complex of what happens inside of you and what influences you from the environment around you!

Some factors you can influence...others you can't! You just have to make sure you make the optimal efforts to fuel your body the right way, so it will be strong and prepared to face the difficulties and cope with the stress that your environment will bring!

The paleolithic diet

Learn more about the Paleo Diet.

The mirror in your head

Psychology sience teaches us that there are four ways in which people perceive themselves- first, the way they see themselves; second the way they want to be; third-the way other see them and forth, the way they want others to see them. That's way too much,ain't it? Or maybe you do not care that much, and you do not see yourself through all the forth images? Lucky you! I know about people that are literally dying to satisfy all these expectations and come as close as possible to the perfect image in their own opinion and in other's people opinion, sometimes even go further and self-destroy themselves!

But as you might guess that can be pretty hard. There are close to 7 billion people in the world. All of them have their own view of the perfect image and it is rediculous to think that you could sclupt yourself according to everybody's expectations. Or so I thought... but the people I mentioned, bet on their lives that you could. And who are they? Just ordinary people like us, the difference is just in the way they see themselves. They are so lost in the higly demanding world, in all the information and expectations that are poured on us daily, that they pretty much twist their image, what they truely are, and consider themselves never good enough or beautiful enough. And let's take the pressure off and finally reveal who they are!...Some say they are anorexic, others say they are bulimic...but what they truely are, is beautiful women and sometimes boys that lost control over their lives, over what they truely loved and wanted to be, and started slaving some fashion trends, started living according to other people expectations, left behind their passion and tried to follow somebody's else passion...and all these things just to satisfy the image that others expected, to finally reach the point where everything just broke down, and they neither satisfied others nor themselves...to finally step on the road to self-destruction.

And let me tell you that road is long, full of traps, torturing and discouraing! The road is so exhausting-it drains all your strength, leaving you there surrounded by people wanting to help you get back up, but in the same time making you feel the heartbreaking solitude, being chained in your own thoughts...being the prisoner of your own thoughts and twisted mind. And how do I know it? I haven't felt it, but I've seen it a couple times. And the sight is hearbreaking- to see the one you love, waste the beautiful personality they have, in the mere goal of perfection. SOme of the cases I witnessed had a fatal ending...but luckily others had a happy ending. I really admire the strength and the will that these people have-the will to light the desire in your heart, to live again, to feel again, and to be yourself again! It takes a long time to take control of your thoughts again, and make your thoughts be your slaves...not you the slave of your thoughts!

Last year I wrote the story about my sister's journey in the world of anorexia and bulimia, and her way back to normal life. The other day I read another story about a lady that also succeeded to overcome the pitfalls on the way of recovery from anorexia and the third one I want to share is about a crosfitter that I really admire-her name is Lisa Bender Thiel. I admire her will to pull herself out of anorexia. Her desire to find a passion, that will help her get in control of herself, her thoughts and get her back on the right road. I admire her persistance to become who she decided to be, and the strength to leave the past behind and live the life she deserves and the one she wants. Here is a link to her blog .

So as you see there are a bunch of examples about beautiful girls making the wrong turn, but even when it all seems hopeless it is up to you to take controll of yourself, your thoughts and your actions. Others can only provide you with support, but it is up to you to find your own motivation, your own direction and follow it. Don't let expectations make you feel down and unworthy, pushing you in the wrong direction of self destruction. Live up to your own expectations, not others. Make sure you have the life YOU imagined, not the life OTHERS WANT YOU TO HAVE!

Why you never get the body you want

Throughout our lives we all have to pass the different stages of our let's call it vital cycle. We all go through the years making mistakes and hopefully learning from them. Thenwhen we look back on the past we realize that life hasn't changed so much, but our point of view took a turn.

What makes you stumble throughout the years, actually makes you grow as a person. I find that to be also true about the world of weightlifting and sports in general. If I take some time to remember my first steps in the world of sports and nutrition...Oh,my......!!! I am pretty scared of myself! :) I've done most mistakes that an athlete could have done! When I stopped playing basketball, I spent about 7months recovering from my injury, before I started swimming. During that time I did not stop practicing. I went to the nearest globo gym, got a membership and it all started! I was the new cardio queen. It makes me laugh out loud when I remember the endless HOURS spend on the treadmill. Lucky me there was a TV, so I could run,walk,peddle and watch whatever was broadcasted. Then, pleased with the calories I burned I went back home and ate as much as I wanted, and whatever I wanted.

Did I ever got to look the way I wanted?Hm...NO! There were times that I thought I just didn't have the right genes, and I was cursed to be skinny fat. And that was a hard statement to swallow, keeping in mind that I was DYING to have some nice muscle definition and a descent lean body.

I was doing everything right(at least according to the popular fitness magazines, and all the fitness myths that are fllowing around)...so why I never lost a pound and the closest I could get to my muscles, was just the feeling of them being exhausted after the two or three hours marathon in the cardio room?

Well, probably because you can't get something, when yoo do not work in the direction of building it! How can you expect to get muscles, when everything you do is exactly the opposite? By spending endless hours in the cardio room, you are most likely to destroy even the small muscles you have, in order to provide your body fuel for the cardio session. When you expose your body to long duration activities you kind of send it a signal that it will need some fuel to keep you going through all that. That puts your body on stress to keep your fat so it will make sure it will be able to provide you energy. SO instead of taking that fat off your body, you are just making sure it will stay there! What your body is gonna do next is it will burn your muscle instead of fat , and there are two reasons for this: first it is a proven fact that the body breaks down muscle protein to use it as fuel, when there isn't another fuel available and second muscles use a lot more calories to live than fat does. Thus, by destroying your muscles, there is a consequence- you slowed your metabolism, which is exactly the opposite of what you wanted-to make it faster!

Mistake number two was my nutrition. Food is meant to provid eypour body the macro and micro nutrients needed in order for it to function properly. Rule number one is YOU EAT ACCORDING TO HOW MUCH YOU PRACTICE AND ACCORDING TO YOUR DAILY ACTIVITY!!! You DO NOT...and I will repeat it DO NOT practice as much as you ate, in order to burn the bad calories and stay skinny. That is not how it works! So stop fooling yourself that you can eat that cake, and then you will go and waste a couple hours in the fitness, and it will all be even. It won't! And NO, I am not trying to let you down, and destroy your motivation! I am just trying to help you, because I've done it...for a sufficient amount of time, and it never worked out that way!

SO that was stage one...and I am happy it is far away in the past!

STage number two is moving to the weightlifting room! That is a big step, but still not where I wanted to be. I remember myself, going to the second floor of the globo gym, where the weights were. I saw all these guys with enormous, pumped hands and skinny legs( but that is a matter of another discussion). And back then, they all looked really intimidating. I was a bit frustrated and doubted my place was there. All I saw were a bunch of machines I did know nothing about and a lot of big biceps. I was lost! So what I did was just look what others did and apply the same to myself. Needless to say, it did not work out that way either. So some more time wasted in the gym, and never achieving the body I aimed.


Later on I was already sick enough of everything and decided to explore the human body and how it functions by myself. SO since then I've been reading and reading, I know a lot now but surely not enough! I am eager to get to know as much more as I could...and who knows if I will laugh at myself again in the future.

But what was on my mind at the beginning was that we all pass through these stages. Some of us unfortunately stay there forever, others just give up...and fortunately some build on the skills and reach where they aimed. So if you are just as I was, do not worry. Just give yourself some time, and learn! You can be, whatever you want to be, and look exactly how you imagine yourself. It just takes some time and knowledge!